I say it all the time - I actually practice the things I preach on this podcast. In fact, the improvement in my life experience that I&#39;ve seen since beginning this podcast is one of the best, most unexpected side effects of the podcast!The last 2 years have been exceptionally challenging for all of us, but I truly believe that it has been a handful of life-changing practices that have sustained me and helped me thrive through it. These practices have transformed the way I experience my own life, and in this episode, I want to share them with you.Today&#39;s episode is the very first episode in season 6 of the podcast. It&#39;s also coming out a mere 2 days before my 42nd birthday! So, as a gift to you, we&#39;re diving into 5 life-changing psych strength practices and 5 different ways to implement each practice. That&#39;s TWENTY-FIVE different actions you can take to build psych strength.And, because this episode is so dense with information, I&#39;ve created a free guide to accompany the episode. You can get a copy of it here. In this guide, you&#39;ll find all of the actions I cover underneath each of the 5 life-changing practices. I also included a bunch of supplemental content: extra hands-on exercises, templates, and resources to help you jump-start your practice. You won&#39;t want to miss the opportunity to grab this guide.As you begin your new year, I truly hope you put yourself first. I hope you adopt some practices that help you build psychological strength, and I hope you experience the life-changing transformation that I&#39;ve been experiencing.Cheers to 2022!Additional Resources:Download your free guide at www.peakmindpsychology.com/fivepracticesAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Building Psychological Strength

0330 | Five Life-Changing Practices

Have you ever been in the position of being the only man / woman / non-binary / person of color / non-native speaker / etc in the room? How did that feel? How comfortable did you feel? How free did you feel to be your true, authentic self? How psychologically safe did you feel?Today, we&#39;re speaking with Stephanie Roldan about the topics of psychological safety and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I).Stephanie Roldan is the Director of Lean Culture at Rosendin Electric. She leads Rosendin&#39;s Respect for People and Continuous Improvement culture, simplified as "Lean Culture." This responsibility includes developing, setting, and leading the strategy on creating an inclusive environment and sense of belonging for employees. She serves as the Chairperson for Rosendin&#39;s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee and sits on the Board of Directors for the AZ Foundation for Women.As a woman in the construction industry, Stephanie knows first-hand what it feels like to be "the only" one in the room. She also knows the importance of cultivating a psychologically safe culture and the impact it can have for bringing people together. The impact it can have for helping us all to feel like we can fully express ourselves. And the impact it can have on creating a more equitable workplace.During our conversation, Stephanie and I have a deep conversation about the experience of being "the only" one in the room. We talk about the importance of psychological safety and how norms around our social groups influence the way we show up and the way others react to us. We talk about the importance of being curious, cultivating connected relationships, being open, and sharing our own stories as a way to create increase connection and empathy. We talk about this and so much more. You won&#39;t want to miss this important conversation.Additional Resources:Episode 0016: Develop the Mind of a SuperheroSHRM DE&I ResourcesConnect with Stephanie on LinkedInAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0329 | Cultivating Psychological Safety

You all know how much I love life design. This time of the year, it&#39;s especially relevant. So many of us take stock of our lives and think about changes we might want to make, and life design provides a set of tools and techniques to help us do that more effectively.Today, We&#39;re speaking with Ben Oosterveld. Ben is a real estate entrepreneur who built a real estate investment company that held 61 properties with investors in 4 different cities. After getting his real estate license, he built a multi million-dollar real estate business with an award winning top national team in 3 years. Today, Ben helps business owners get clear about who they really are and what they really want. He helps them make the right changes in their business and life with the new goal of building a life they love. His focus is on coaching, speaking and running personal growth retreats.During this episode we dive deep into the importance of defining your "compass" or the type of life you actually want to live. We talk about the importance of finding happiness along the way, not just when we achieve an external goal. And, Ben has some special advice for the entrepreneurs in the crowd.Additional Resources:Episode 206: The Calendar AuditHedonic TreadmillAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0328 | Set Your Compass and Live a Life You Love

Over the last 5 seasons, we&#39;ve covered so many practices that we can build into our lives in order to help us thrive. But, there&#39;s one topic that we haven&#39;t really covered in any depth: creativity. Turns out, creative endeavors like painting, sculpting, poetry, dance, and other mediums tie so well into many schools of thought about how to help us thrive. That&#39;s precisely what we&#39;re diving into today!Today we&#39;re speaking with Morgan Beard. Morgan has dedicated her life to using creativity to heal and empower. She received her BA in Visual and Media Studies from Duke University in 2012 and her MPS in Art Therapy from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 2017. As an art therapist in New York, she worked in a public elementary school, an adult inpatient psychiatric unit, and a 183-bed nursing home. She currently lives in LA and works as a life coach using art and creativity to help people thrive.Additional Resources:Episode 183: The Self Care PyramidSelf-Care [by design] mini-courseMartin Seligman&#39;s PERMA Model: https://positivepsychology.com/perma-model/Learn more about Morgan at www.morganbeard.coachAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0327 | How to Use Creativity to Thrive

Have you ever stopped to consider just how often fear influences how you think, feel, and react? Sometimes, this impact can be slight, and we&#39;re able to quickly move past it. However, other times, these feelings of fear can be so intense that they stop us in our tracks. They lead us to feel trapped.Today, we&#39;re talking about the notion of &#39;fear traps&#39; with Dr. Nancy Stella. Dr. Stella has been a leading clinical psychologist in the Cincinnati area for over twenty five years, co-owning and growing one of Ohio&#39;s largest private, multi-specialty mental health practices. She developed the Courageous Brain Process (CBP)—an innovative, science-based method of therapy. Rooted in the most up-to-date neuroscience, it bypasses the shortcomings of traditional talk therapy to change the way our brains process fear. Her first book, Fear Traps: Escaping the Triggers that Keep You Stuck, gives readers proven practices for building courage and resilience.Additional Resources:Learn more about Dr. Stella by visiting https://www.nancystella.com/Learn more about the Ascend program: https://www.peakmindpsychology.com/ascendThe Brain Science Behind Fear [blog post]Episode 0133 "The Courage Habit" with Kate SwobodaAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0326 | How to Use Courageous Brain Process to Escape Fear Traps

December is here, which means New Years is right around the corner, bringing with it goals for creating better habits and changing our lives for the better. Except, habits are stinking hard to change!!Our minds are hard-wired to make habitual behaviors very difficult to change, but it&#39;s not impossible. In today&#39;s episode, we&#39;re diving into the habit change literature to help set you up for success to change the habits you want to change in the coming year.Today, we&#39;ll talk about what habits are. There are 3 parts to them, and most people focus on the least important part. Then, we&#39;ll talk about some tips for making two kinds of habit changes. The first is what I&#39;m calling &#39;subtractive habits.&#39; These are behaviors we want to eliminate or do less of. Then, we&#39;ll talk about &#39;additive habits,&#39; or behaviors we want to add or do more of. In both cases, I&#39;ll offer you some science-backed tips to set yourself up to be more successful, whatever type of behavior change you&#39;re hoping to make.Last, I&#39;ll offer you a couple of resources, linked below. We have a treasure trove of goodies in the Peak Mind vault all centered on habit formation and change, and we&#39;ve linked to it all below.Finally, if you haven&#39;t heard yet, Peak Mind is teaming up with the Heart Mind Institute and Wisdom for Life to bring you the free, 10-day &#39;Best Year of Your Life&#39; online summit. Over 10 days you&#39;ll hear from some of the most famous, world-renown psychologists, teachers, and visionaries, and it&#39;s completely free. Hundreds of you have already signed up, and we&#39;re so excited to see you there. Click the link below to secure your free spot.Here&#39;s to you and to forming better habits in the new year!Additional Resources:Peak Mind vault on habit change: https://www.peakmindpsychology.com/blog?tag=habitsSign up for the &#39;Best Year of Your Life&#39; online summit: https://www.peakmindpsychology.com/bestyearAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0325 | Develop Better Habits in 2022

Being a parent is hard. It&#39;s a fact. If there&#39;s one relationship that requires us to be psychologically strong, it&#39;s the relationship we cultivate with our kids.This week, we&#39;re diving deep into the Mother-Daughter relationship. Specifically, we&#39;re talking about how we can cultivate the type of relationship with our daughters that we want to have, all while keeping ourselves sane at the same time. So, how can we raise empowered daughters while thriving ourselves? That&#39;s exactly what we&#39;re digging into with Dr. Michelle Deering.Before running her consulting business, Dr. Michelle Deering served as a licensed psychologist and board -certified sport psychologist at a BIG 10 University, Fortune 500 corporate trainer, and higher education professional. Nowadays you’ll find her speaking at conferences, training for her next Reebok Spartan Sprint Race, and practicing rudiments on her drum kit — all while coaching, serving clients, and recording her hit podcast, Mother Daughter Connections™. Dr. Deering is a graduate of Brown University and is a licensed psychologist and board-certified sports psychologist.Additional Resources:Episode 321: The Critical Role of Emotions in Managing ConflictTake our FREE healthy selfishness & pathological altruism quiz: www.peakmindpsychology.com/quizGet a copy of Dr. Deering&#39;s free guide: The Quick Guide To Lessen ArgumentsLearn more about Dr. Deering&#39;s work: https://www.curativeconnections.com/meet-dr-michelle-deering/Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0324 | Cultivating the Mother-Daughter Relationship with Dr. Michelle Deering

So, you&#39;ve taken the time to define what your personal values are. Amazing! Knowing your personal values is an important step in helping you align your life and your decision-making in the direction that is right for you.But, let me ask you this: when you look at your actual behavior, the decisions you&#39;re making, the way you&#39;re spending your time, does it reflect those values? Are your values important to you in CONCEPT or in ACTION?Today, we&#39;re talking about the topic of personal values from a different lens. From the lens of ACTION. It&#39;s one thing to say a value is important to you in a conceptual way. However, if your behavior, actions, and decision-making don&#39;t follow, you&#39;ll still experience the same level of cognitive dissonance and incongruence. In today&#39;s episode, I urge you to take action on your values. To define what they truly mean to you and to begin setting boundaries, making decisions, and saying no when things don&#39;t align. To behave in congruence.It&#39;s hard, but it&#39;s so worth it!Additional Resources:Episode 182: "Resentment Grows Where a Boundary Needs to be Planted"Episode 242: "Curate Your Life and Manage Your Energy"Episode 314: "The Secret to Effective Prioritization"Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0323 | Values in Concept versus Values in Action

There are a few things I hear from clients more often than anything else. "How do I move forward when I&#39;m afraid?" or "How do I stop my inner critic?" or "I feel stuck in my old ways and am having a hard time changing." These complaints may sound like big, difficult problems, and they definitely feel that way when you&#39;re the one experiencing them. But, the antidote to each and every one of them is one foundational concept: psychological flexibility.Psychological flexibility is a concept that has risen in the field of psychology over the past decade or so, spearheaded by the work of Dr. Steven Hayes, the founder of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Today, we&#39;re speaking with another practitioner of ACT and psychological flexibility, Dr. Diana Hill. In this conversation, we talk about what psychological flexibility is, and how it applies to so many different situations in our lives.We have a particularly deep conversation about how it applies in situations where we&#39;re striving. You know those times - you&#39;re fixated on achieving a goal or accomplishing a lot. You&#39;re grinding. You&#39;re working so hard. But, is it always a good thing? If you&#39;re the type of person who is driven to achieve, you&#39;re not going to want to miss the back half of this episode.Additional Resources:Learn more about Dr. Hill by visiting https://drdianahill.comEpisode 161: What is Perfectly Hidden Depression with Dr. Margaret RutherfordEpisode 143: How to Liberate Your Mind and Pivot Toward What Matters with Dr. Steven HayesThe Happiness Trap by Russ Harris [affiliate link]Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0322 | The Super Power of Psychological Flexibility with Diana Hill

When you think about effectively managing conflict, what comes to mind? Many people go straight to things like communication skills or the ability to clearly articulate a point. But, what about the role of emotion? What if we truly aren&#39;t rational beings? What if we accept the fact that we are emotional beings and approach conflict from a place of emotional intelligence?Today I&#39;m speaking with Doug Noll about the role of emotions in conflict and communication. This conversation is a literal masterclass about how to recognize, label, and validate our own emotions and the emotions of others. Doug offers up his 3 step process to deescalate any situation whether it&#39;s with your significant other, a co-worker, or with your kids. His emotion-centric approach is backed by some of the most cutting-edge neuroscience and has shown to be effective in nearly any setting.Additional Resources:Learn more about Doug by visiting https://dougnoll.co/psychologicalstrengthWant help sifting through your own complex emotions? Check out this Peak Mind blog post: https://www.peakmindpsychology.com/blog/Emotional-Intelligence-Sifting-Through-Grey-Emotional-SludgeCheck out Episode 221 of the podcast to learn how to win every argument: https://www.peakmindpsychology.com/blog/0221Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0321 | The Critical Role of Emotions in Managing Conflict with Doug Noll

Today is a very special episode for those of you who are high-achievers, those who tend toward perfectionism, and those who have a lot on your plate right now. Many times, in our quest to be more productive, we find ourselves using tactics that simply aren&#39;t effective. The crazy thing is that we feel like we&#39;re doing the right thing or increasing our efficiency, but from a brain science perspective, we&#39;re doing more harm than good.Today, we&#39;re speaking with Dr. Nicole Byers, a neuropsychologist, about ways we can truly become more productive. She talks about why some of the typical advice of grinding it out or multi-tasking simply doesn&#39;t work. She talks about practical ways to set up our workday to be more effective. She also gives great tips about how to transition from a hectic workday into your evening with your family to have some capacity and mental space left to be present with those you love.This episode is full of practical tips you can put to work in your life today in order to be more effective and productive.Additional Resources:Learn more about Dr. Byers by visiting https://www.drnicolebyers.com/Peak Mind&#39;s Blog Post "Why is this Decision So Hard?!": https://www.peakmindpsychology.com/blog/How-to-Overcome-IndecisivenessPatrick McGinnis&#39; TED talk about FOBO: https://www.ted.com/talks/patrick_mcginnis_how_to_make_faster_decisions#t-97978Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0320 | Brain Hacks to Boost Productivity with Nicole Byers

Today, we&#39;re myth-busting the topics of resilience, thriving through adversity, and post-traumatic growth. We&#39;ve all heard about these topics, but unfortunately, the belief that we walk away with is that true "resilience" means we can skip through the truly challenging times that life throws at us.It&#39;s simply not true.Resilience does NOT mean you somehow don&#39;t experience the stress, anxiety, or negative emotions that are perfectly natural consequences of a difficult or challenging time. In fact, during truly challenging times, we worry more if you aren&#39;t experiencing those effects.Rather, resilience, thriving through adversity, and post-traumatic growth have more to do with what happens as a result of a challenging situation. That&#39;s the focus of today&#39;s episode. Today we talk about how to support yourself through challenging times, but mostly, we talk about what to do afterward. What we make the situation mean. How we grow from it. What we learn. Who we BECOME.This is a powerful episode, and I hope you&#39;ll share it with someone who might benefit from it.Additional Resources:Emotional sifting: Helpful blog post, Emotion WheelAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0319 | Myth-Busting Resilience

The last 18 months have challenged some of the most basic assumptions we had about what is necessary for a productive work environment. Gone are the days when we believed we absolutely HAD TO BE IN PERSON to be productive. Among others, one of the big lessons COVID has taught us is that the future of work is flexible.Today, I&#39;m speaking with Alex Morrall, founder of the Twin Cities Wellness Collective and the host of the podcast of the same name. We&#39;re talking about major insights we&#39;ve all learned from our hybrid work during COVID as well as some very practical ways we can support our own wellbeing and leaders can support their teams in a hybrid work model.Additional Resources:Learn more about Alex Morrall and his work and subscribe to his podcast at: https://www.tcwellnesscollective.com/Martin Seligman&#39;s book "Flourish": https://amzn.to/39QbBMD [affiliate link]Episode 251 "Preparing for the Post COVID Life Change": https://www.peakmindpsychology.com/blog/0251Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0318 | Psychological Strength & Flexible Work Arrangements

There&#39;s no avoiding it - we&#39;re 18 months into a very challenging time, and the end isn&#39;t really in sight. I&#39;m hearing from more and more corporations and organizations who tell me that their employees are struggling to move through the challenge and uncertainty that we&#39;ve all experienced, which is why I was so excited to welcome Will Moore of Moore Momentum back to the podcast for a second time.Will is an expert in habit change. Specifically, in this episode, we talk about the importance of cultivating what he calls "success habits" to support you through times that are uncertain or challenging. He&#39;s honest about how tough it can be and how "front loaded" the process is. But, his personal story shows the value in cultivating habits that help you thrive and succeed.Additional Resources:Learn more about Will by visiting Moore MomentumWill&#39;s first interview on the podcast - episode 0189Carol Dweck&#39;s book Mindset (affiliate link)Episode 0288 - How Structure Creates FlexibilityAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0317 | Building Habits to Succeed and Thrive through Uncertainty

Ashley and I have been doing quite a few workshops centered around what psychological strength is and what the components are that make it up. And, there&#39;s one component that consistently generates more confusion and questions than any other. That topic is mindfulness. The skill of mindfulness sits at the center of our wheel of psychological strength, and it&#39;s the core of psych strength for a reason. You need strong mindfulness skills to develop skills in all of the other areas. Your relationship with your thoughts relies on mindfulness. Mindfulness is the foundation of emotional intelligence. It impacts your relationships, your sense of self, it interacts with your habits and behavior and is an important component in life design. It really is the core of psych strength. However, it frequently gets confused with other similar skills and techniques. Specifically, visualization. In today&#39;s episode, I want to dig into these two concepts: Mindfulness and visualization to give you a solid understanding of what each of them is. How they&#39;re similar, how they&#39;re different, and more importantly, when to use each one of them because they&#39;re both useful for different things. Supplemental information: Podcast episode 0239 - "How to not hate meditation" Cheryl B. Engelhardt&#39;s episode Use of mental imagery for sports performance Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

0316 - The Difference between Mindfulness and Visualization

More and more, people are seeing the benefits of building resilience, building confidence, building mental toughness and flexibility, and moving past fear and anxiety in their lives. April Seifert, Ph.D., hosts this powerful podcast that will help you build psychological strength through interviews and information from some of the world's leading experts in the fields of Psychology and Life Design. It's time to go beyond merely surviving. It's time to thrive! This podcast is brought to you by Peak Mind: The Center for Psychological Strength.

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Building Psychological Strength

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